Lin Murphy, Life Coach at One Roof, recently wrote:
“We are just past the summer solstice. This is a good time to take a look at what you want and how you are spending your time and to create an intention.
We all want more “P”s – peace, passion, play, prosperity, personal power. With the longer days and easier ways, it is a good time to create an intention for your well being. For example: My intention is to enjoy the summer, spend time outdoors while keeping my business strong and healthy.
It’s a great time to create a better work life/balance. While there aren’t any simple answers to balance and it is a process, not a destination, here are some basic management skills that my clients have found extremely helpful.
1. Identify the top four priority categories in your life that you want more balance (ie, family/relationship,work, personal care/exercise, fun and recreation)
2. Write things down. Don’t use your brain as your day planner. Doing so increases stress. Consider what you want more of or less of in each category.
3. Practice being in the present moment;
When you’re at work, be there fully.When you’re at home with family, be there fully.
Meditate 10 minutes a day.
Be patient with yourself as you apply these tips to your life.”
Lin’s P’s couldn’t resonate with me more as I begin here at One Roof to achieve more balance in my personal/professional life (to use more P’s). This summer I am focusing on finding peace in the 4am feedings with my baby, joy in playing not only with a baby, but like a baby (did you ever know playing peek-a-boo could be SOO much fun!), reinvigorating my passion for neglected hobbies (I WILL make it out on the golf course this summer), remaining open to seeing prosperity in the little moments of life (my son’s first hug, tender moments of my husband tending to our sons’ tears), and invoking my personal power to simply say “No”, no to my house needing to be immaculately clean, no to the every growing pile of clean but unfolded cloths, and no to everything taking me away from embracing these “P”s for myself and my family this summer.
Are you minding your “P”s this summer?
PT With Pat: Forget the days of no pain no gain rehab.
The whole is equal to the sum of its part or you are only as strong as your weakest link. That couldn’t feel more true going around with a bum knee. When I came to One Roof and began learning of the work Pat Tschannen did with her patients I was eager to get her opinion on a knee that has been bothering me since an original ACL injury in 2002. I had gone through an initial round of traditional Physical Therapy in 2002 and then in November of 2008 I re-injured my knee requiring major reconstructive ACL and meniscus surgery in January of 2009. After which I completed another 3 month round of torturous and what felt like barbaric physical therapy. Of which the mantras of “no pain no gain” and “don’t be such a girl” were routinely chanted by my therapists. (Did I mention that I nearly passed out on several occasions from the pain?) Now I’m no wimp, I endured two day of labor induction with my son without any pain meds and nary a complaint, but this was excruciating. I was subsequently discharged when they felt I had gained back adequate range of motion and was told that I just needed to keep strengthening, despite continued complaints of sharp pain, lack of full range of motion, let alone the fact that I still couldn’t walk for long without a limp and couldn’t go up and down stairs. Here I was 18 months post surgery; I’ve strengthened, I’ve stretched, and I still couldn’t walk up and down stairs, and the pain had only gotten worse after the birth of my son. So I began work with Pat. She checked my range of motion, she checked the alignment of my hips, spine, and feet. She listened to my body and felt for the mobility and motility of the organs looking for balance. She worked to find the root cause of the original injury to heal the current complaints. She prescribed very gentle (yet challenging) strengthening exercises, focusing on keeping my body in alignment through every day activities, stretching, strengthening and most important – if it hurts – stop! Teaching me the difference between pain that was caused by a probably misalignment creating strain versus muscle fatigue from weakness. In session she focused on some massage, mayofacial release, and visceral manipulations. She worked on releasing adhesions/scars from my cesarean delivery as well as my 18 month old knee surgery, and from an old tailbone injury from high school. Then the magic began to happen – I began to heal.